{Japan: Eat} Castella Is All Around in Nagasaki, Kyushu

As M and I emerged from the beautiful Glover Gardens (home to mansions of former Western merchants in Nagasaki), we came upon a row of stores selling all sorts of souvenirs and snacks. We meandered slowly past them, peering in to windows and doorways for a glimpse of anything that might catch our eye. And then, I saw a sign advertising Castella Ice! As I pointed it out to M, the storekeeper noticed my excitement and immediately called out for me to come in. Upon following her inside the store, she led us to a freezer and and, opening it, announced, “I have all kinds of flavors!”

By chance, the first one she pointed out was the biwa (loquat) flavored one and I knew right away that was the one we’d be getting. Growing up, my family had a biwa tree in our backyard, and while I’d eaten the fresh fruit throughout my life, I’d never tried it in ice cream form. After paying for our treat, we sat down on a bench and removed the Castella Ice from its wrapper: a scoop of biwa flavored ice cream tucked between two slices of castella.

Not surprisingly, the Castella Ice was wonderful! Castella, a Japanese sponge cake brought to the country by Portuguese merchants, is one of my favorite desserts to begin with. But having it incorporated into an ice cream sandwich just made it doubly delicious.

After polishing off our Castella Ice, we left the store and continued down the pathway. As it turned out, not 5 minutes later, we came upon another row of shops and it appeared that almost all of them were selling castella. I thought maybe I’d had enough sweet stuff for the time being, but then I noticed that one of the shops was the very famous Bunmeido, perhaps the most famous castella maker in all of Japan. I suggested that we go in and get a slice and a moment later we were among the throng of customers inside the store. Sitting on the counter was a tray of individually wrapped slices of castella — which I promptly bought one of.

An outlet of the famous Bunmeido store.

Tucking my slice of castella into my purse, we made our way down the hill. I was thinking that I would eat it when we reached our hotel, but then I noticed yet another sign that made me stop and take pause. It was a poster covered with pictures of treats but the one in the lower left hand corner was the only one I was concerned with: “Castella Soft”, it read.

M sighed and said between the Castella Ice and Bunmeido castella slice and Castella Soft I’d be ruining my lunch for sure. But I was dismissive of his concerns, what was a trip to Nagasaki without indulging in one of its most famous foods? Moments later, I was clutching a Castella soft in one hand and my Bunmeido castella in the other. And yes, I was in castella heaven.

And that was how it went for the rest of the time we were in Nagasaki ~ it was as if the whole world went castella on us. Everywhere we turned there was some castella-themed item staring us in the face: castella stuffed toys, billboards advertising castella, carts selling castella soft, castella donuts, pie roll castella, and even castella cider! And who knew there were so many flavors of castella? Having lived in Southern California my whole life, I had only tried the original version. But here in Nagasaki, I saw frosted castella for the first time, as well as such flavors as chocolate, honey, green tea, black sugar, and, to my surprise, cheese. Needless to say, nearly all of my meals were “ruined” by various castella snacks but it was definitely, definitely worth it.

Oh yes, we loved Nagasaki as well, definitely one of my most favorite cities in Japan. We spent quite a while at the Glover Garden, it was so interesting seeing all the houses the wealthy merchants used to live in. I was surprised at how popular biwa was in Nagasaki, I had never heard it was the thing in that city.

Ah yes, it was! While I’d heard that Nagasaki was well-known for their castella I didn’t know that it would come in so many forms and flavors. It’s totally spoiled me and now I can’t eat the castella sold here in So Cal.

The Castella Ice was wonderful! Makes we want to go out and buy some castella and make a sandwich with rocky road ice cream lol. I just wish the castella sold here in Southern California was as good as the stuff in Nagasaki.

I do remember you mentioning how you must stay gluten-free. What willpower you must have! My mother actually tried making a gluten-free castella a few weeks back. Unfortunately, we all thought it was terrible! Hopefully, the bakers in Nagasaki can come up with a tasty one someday.

It’s wonderful that you like to bake! I’m sure you are being modest about your baking skills but, no matter what, you are better than I am in that particular area. Baking (and cooking, in general), is really not my forte. I rely on my sister and mother to produce freshly baked goods that I greedily gobble up.

Oh yes, I love cooking and baking because it’s a way to express myself. But that doesn’t stop me from devouring what my mum cooks.
Anyway, there are specific ingredients and particular tricks to achieve that “Japanese perfection”, but for home baking…I just can’t be bothered 😉

I would think Nagoya would have some of the Nagasaki castella chains since it’s a pretty major city. I thought I’d heard that Bunmeido had outlets all over Japan so hopefully there’s one there. I hope you will get to go to Kyushu someday soon, we really loved our time there.

I really need to see more of Nagoya and indulge in their fabulous food. We were in the city for exactly one night back in 2012 and it was primarily to act as a hub during our day trip to Gifu. Since our hotel was in Nagoya station we never saw the city beyond the walls of the station. Such a mistake but one we really hope to correct in our future travels to Japan!

We hope to do a Kyushu-based trip as well! So far on our trips to Kyushu, we’ve mainly concentrated on the Northern half. Would love to travel further down to Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

Nagoya does make a good hub, for Gifu and Mie. Nagoya station is a site in itself though. It’s got some superlative attached to it. Can’t remember which now. Maybe the biggest in the world? Let me know if you make it here any time in the next couple of years hey 🙂

As much as I want to go to Kyushu asap, a big part of me is resisting going until I have the time and money to do all of it at once.

I’m doing a week in Hiroshima for Golden Week, which I’m super excited about. I’ve only been there for like one day before.

Yes, I remember Nagoya Station being huge when we were walking from the train to our hotel! It would be worth going back to the city just to explore the station and all the tunnels underneath. I’ll definitely let you know if I make it back there in the next couple of years, I’m sure you have lots of tips for great places to eat in the city!

Hiroshima during Golden Week, that’s going to be so exciting! We went to the city in May of 2012 and were able to see the Peace Park and the castle and Miyajima Island. I really loved the island with all its deer and momiji manjus and anago meshi.

We’re really hoping to visit Japan again in the spring or fall. My boyfriend prefers the weather in the spring but I’d rather go in the fall so Harry Potter World will be open by then lol! Our last 2 trips, we had the JR Pass so it was really whirlwind trips with us constantly on the move from one city to the next and hitting no less than 3 islands. This time I’d really like to concentrate on the Kansai region, especially Kyoto. Even though we’ve gone to Kyoto once, I got sick and didn’t get to enjoy myself. I’d also love to visit Wakayama since my mother is from the area. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll able to make it this year!

Oh, it was! And I’m glad we tried the biwa flavor since that’s not something readily available to us in Southern California. Writing this post has put me in the mood to try making my own castella ice cream sandwiches!

I absolutely looooved this post! Castella is my favourite. And a castella ice cream sandwich is just about a dream come true. Actually that whole place seems like paradise, with all those delicious castella items everywhere ♡﻿

Seriously, I could not believe how many variations of castella there was everywhere in the city. I’m sure I missed a lot of them since we were only there for 3 days. But trust me, I ate as much of it as my stomach could possibly hold lol!

I have never seen so many different kinds of castella before. That’s interesting that they make ice cream and all sorts of things with it! I like the little stuffed animal/key chain castella that look like a bus. 😀

Yes, even though I’d heard that Nagasaki was famous for their castella I was surprised to see all the different things they’d done with it. I was thinking of buying the stuffed castella for my sister but we were already getting too bogged down with souvenirs as it was!

On the side, I do admire your knack for noticing – and actively participating in – the local food scene during your travels. My interests have always had too much of an academic bent; in fact I’m more likely to look at a battered old historical marker mounted on a wall than at the street food vendor standing next to it. (You won’t notice it on my blog as I don’t normally publish those, but my photo archives are crammed with pictures of maps, markers, signs, explanatory labels and so forth from the museums and landmarks that I’ve visited.)

A healthy appreciation of the local cuisine is something I’m looking to develop as I get around more. Hopefully, after my wintertime sojourn in Japan, I’ll be able to return the favour of your food posts with tasty servings of my own.

In all seriousness, a number of Japanese people I know aren’t the biggest fans of castella either. Growing up, I ate it a good number of times because my mother really likes any variation of sponge cake. But M hardly ever had it before this trip and if he hadn’t been with me, I doubt he would have eaten any castella on his own.

Bunmeido’s castella was wonderful, it had a very refined taste to it. And yes, the crust was unusual in that it had a cinnamon sugar/red bean look to it. But it didn’t actually taste any different from the rest of the slice, oddly enough. If I go back to Nagasaki, I will definitely want to try more flavors of the Castella Ice.

I like to think that our Japan trips have a good mix in terms of exploring the most interesting attractions and indulging in the local food scene —- but I have to admit that a lot more research goes into the latter! Nagasaki was especially wonderful in terms of their regional food; besides castella, we really enjoyed their champon/sara udon and Toruko Rice. The one dish we missed was shippoku but that’s alright, it just gives us another reason to return to the city someday!

I am already looking forward to hearing about your upcoming trip to Japan. Sapporo has so many delicious dishes, I hope you will be able to enjoy them all. I would think the soup curry and Genghis Khan and miso corn butter ramen will be especially tasty in the winter time. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful trip and that you stay healthy and safe during your travels.

Oh wow!! I’m trying to plan what I’m going to do over the Spring Holidays and I’ve now decided that I’m going to travel to Nagasaki!! Those castella cakes look absolutely scrumptious! Which one was your favourite flavour? 🙂

So exciting, I’m sure you will love Nagasaki! It’s definitely one of my most favorite cities in Japan, the people there are so friendly and there’s so much to see and do. Believe it or not, my favorite castella was just the ordinary one with no extra flavoring like chocolate or cheese or fruits added to it. Not to say that the others were bad or anything, I think I’m just used to the standard castella because that’s the one that I grew up eating.

Ahh I had to look at your castella photos again and I’m getting so excited about going there! I’ll definitely try the plain one- sometimes the simple flavours are the best, no frills or weird things inside 🙂 thanks again for sharing

Wow. I never thought that sponge cake could be turned into a lot of things … even cider. Some pastry stores here sell Japanese sponge cake but I’ve never seen any that look like the gorgeous ones in your photos. The ice cream sandwich looks so good. Mmmm. 🙂

As much as I love castella, I have to admit that I wasn’t necessarily excited by drinking the cider version of it. Since M wasn’t on board with wanting to try it, I decided it was a no-go. That’s ok, I think we definitely got our fill of castella in other ways and that ice cream sandwich was the best of all! Castella in Southern California is nowhere near as beautiful as the ones in Japan either. Sometimes my mother will bake it, the next time she does I will take a couple of slices and make an ice cream sandwich with it!

Lovely post! Made me so hungry 🙂 Castella is not usually one of my favorite Japanese sweets, but this post is really making me reconsider. I’ve never tried any of these variations, and they all look so delicious! Love those cute straps and plushies too.

Growing up, castella was not necessarily one of my favorite Japanese sweets either. It just seemed so plain and kinda bleh. But, as I grew older and my palate changed, I really grew to love it. I especially like the texture of the crust! It was really wonderful to see all the different types in Nagasaki, I wish they would sell some of them in the Japanese supermarkets here in Southern California.

It is hard to escape from Castella in Nagasaki, isn’t it? I visited the city when I was In high school and how much Castella we ate, you don’t believe it! We bought boxes of the cake and ate them on the bus, comparing different brands. No wonder we all gained weight from the trip 😱

Even though I’d heard how Nagasaki is famous for their castella I couldn’t believe how omnipresent it was in the city. I actually think I ate the largest quantity of it when I was at Huis Ten Bosch. Many of the stores had samples of it and I could not stop eating them! It didn’t help that there were so few visitors in the park that day so we had no competition for the samples. I have no doubt that some of the weight gain from my Japan trip was due to castella as well!

This was a fun post. It’s always neat to see how other countries interpret their sweets. The one time I went to Japan, I went to a market just to see how different the cereals, candy, and soda were from what I was familiar with. It was cool. You said you could find castella at Marukai? We come down to SoCal enough that now I have to find it! It looks so good! Even if it’s just a shadow of itself, I need to try it. Would it be in the manju section? And is castella soft really soft serve ice cream? How did it taste different from say vanilla?

I love going to the markets in Japan too! I actually spend the longest time in the instant ramen aisle because I buy a bunch to take back home lol. Yes, they have castella at Marukai, I just bought some the other day! I usually go to the one in Costa Mesa, it’s in a fridge with other cakes like Swiss Roll and baumkuchens. Yes, castella soft is really just soft serve ice cream. Soft serve ice creams are so popular in Japan, there are so many different kinds of flavors and it all varies depending on the region you’re in. In all honesty, I didn’t think the castella soft tasted much like castella, but it wasn’t exactly like vanilla either. I much preferred the castella ice cream sandwich, now that was GOOD!

What a coincidence about your topic of castella, I seen your comment on swanlaine (as I am her friend on a website called poupee girl) and I got curious of your blog so I look and notice this castella post, and I just got a box of Nagasaki castella yesterday from my husband as a random surprise gift. 😀 I did not know much about castella actually, when my husband gave it to me yesterday he said its from Nagasaki. I did not know that its a specialty from Nagasaki and that its originally from the Portuguese, as I am not originally from Japan that is why I did not know these things before!

Thanks so much for your comment! Sorry for this late response, I’m sure by now that you have finished the castella your husband sent you —- that was so nice of him! Mmm, real Nagasaki castella is so good, I especially love the texture of the crust. I live in Southern California and we have Japanese supermarkets that sell it but it’s no where near as good as the real thing. I hope you enjoyed yours!

Yeah your right I finished the castella from the time you replied, it was yummy! That is cool they sell it in California, I have a friend who lives in southern California and she says she can get most Japanese snacks there at the store like you mentioned about castella. Thanks for visiting my blog! Do you visit Japan often or it was once?

Soft ice cream in Japan tastes so good, especially up in Hokkaido where they’re known for their dairy products. The castella soft ice cream was actually a bit weird in that it really didn’t taste much like castella. But it was still good, it’s rare that I don’t like ice cream!

My husband is Japanese and I just love Japanese food. When we went to Japan for the wedding ceremony I was introduced to Yokan and Kasutera! Since we don’t get either here in Sicily I have learned to make them myself. Your pictures are gorgeous! It’s like having a virtual tour. I had so much fun looking at them.

Thanks so much for your kind words. The kasutera in Nagasaki was the best I’d ever had, I’d never known before that it came in so many different flavors and variations. That’s wonderful that you bake your own kasutera. But I have to admit that I am more impressed with the picture of the cannoli wallpapered on to your blog —– I just love cannolis, the cream is to die for!

Thank you for linking to my post, Diego! I never realized that you got a notification like this for linking. I’m glad you got to try castella and thought it was alright. I think a lot of people find it to be a bit plain their first time around. The one you got in your picture looks so big, is it a whole loaf?